Office for the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education to Consider Group Complaints from Students

The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, the Ombudsman for university students in England and Wales, is proposing a rule change to allow complaints from large groups.  The change could open the door for OIA investigations where a particular problem has impacted a many students, including students who have not completed their university's internal grievance procedures. 

In a statement, OIA explained: 

In recent years there have been events affecting the higher education sector that have had the potential to lead to large numbers of complaints to us, including the impact of Covid-19 and the unprecedented disruption it is causing. While such events don’t necessarily lead to large groups of students complaining to us, it’s important that we are properly prepared and that we can handle large group complaints in a way that works for everyone involved.

The change could also help OIA respond to the growing number of student complaints, which have been growing by about 20% per year for the past few years. (OIA New and Updates.)

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